Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Buy Used

$4.99

Comment: The cover shows normal wear and tear. The cover has a slightly warped spine. The dust jacket shows normal wear and tear. Text only, no supplement included. The pages show little wear and tear. Item ships secure with Fulfillment By Amazon, Prime customers get 2nd day at no charge!

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This is simply one of the best, most well written books I have ever read---on any subject! My highest compliment is that I wish it had gone on and on. If Mr. Burke decides to write another book, I shall be the first in line to purchase it. Great job, Monte!

Monte Burke's book Sowbelly, which chronicles the pursuit of the world record bass, is a great read that should appeal to all types. In addition to being a great fishing tale, it also looks into the depths of some very interesting lives.

A friend of mine gave me this book a few months ago. I rolled my eyes and laughed, but he swore I would like the book. I'm a non-fish eating vegetarian and I have been for 16 years. I'm appalled by dead animals hanging on walls. If I want to relax, I think restorative yoga, not fishing. "Just read it." He said. I took it, but I knew I wouldn't read it.

Then this past weekend I was somewhere out in the middle of nowhere where I had read all of the books and magazines except for this one. And it was raining. And there was no TV.

So I picked it up. I figured I'd either kill an hour, or, more likely, end up napping. Three pages into the book and I was riveted. RIVETED. I finished the book last night, just a few days later. I don't think it's so much that this is a great book for people into Bass fishing, though I'm sure it is, but it's a great book for people who are interested in characters, in stories of drive, determination, ambition, guile and creativity. And that's everyone, isn't it? This story could have easily been about Olympic athletes or internet start-ups or anyone else who tries to be the biggest, the best or first. It's about how a quest shapes a person and effects everyone around them, including, and especially, their competitors. It's also extremely well written. While I'm sure he knows his fishing, Monte Burke writes in a voice that is friendly to the fishing ignorant. Sowbelly shouldn't just be marketed towards fishing people -- that completely turns someone like me away and I absolutely loved this book.

This book is not about catching the biggest largemouth bass in the world. It's about the men who try to catch the biggest largemouth bass in the world. (Don't worry though; Burke recites plenty of fishing tales.)

Their stories are all a bit different but, at their core, have many of the same elements. No matter if it's the anger and frustration of Bob Crupi or a desire to be the "biggest dog" like Mike Long, each and every angler - addict might be more accurate - displays a single-minded purpose; to catch the biggest largemouth bass in the world.

A fantastic read! As the owner of the Creek Chub factory display of the World Record Bass and having fished with some he writes about including Porter Hall in Florida and Dan Snow in trips to Cuba in 1979, and closely following the exploits of others who persue big bass, I know that this authors reporting is accurate.

He also has dug deeper than anyone else uncovering a lot of information that no one knew, pulling it all together in a compelling way that helps us to understand the sacrificies made by those who strive to be the best or set a world record in any endeavor.

I will read it again and again and am highly recommending it to all my friends and you.

I just have to say, this is the most accurate account of the trophy bass scene, I have ever read. Riveting ! I picked it up, and could barely put it down. Finished it in two nights, but I am fixing to read it again. This book confirmed some things that I already believed, and it taught me much more.

If you are even slightly interested in the key players of the race for the world record Lagemouth bass, you should probably buy this book. If you are a trophy bass angler yourself, such as I am, this book is a flat out neccessity.

Just this past March, about a year after this book's publication, Mac Weakley (who features prominently in the book) brought in an almost certain record-breaker--a bass just over 25 lb out of Lake Dixon near San Diego. He ended up releasing the fish, and, to my knowledge, he is not going to pursue a world record certification (the fish was apparently unintentionally foul-hooked). On top of that, the fish was the same one that had been purportedly caught twice earlier at sub-22 lb weights, once by Mike Long and once by Weakley's friend Jed Dickerson. This was all just another chapter in this fascinating story, and this book is not only a great read--as others have said--but also a thorough background for someone who wants to understand the origins of the CA bass scene after hearing about Weakley's sensational catch.

I'd recommend that those who are interested in Weakley's potential record-breaker read this book--and that those who liked this book follow the ongoing story of record-hunting fishermen.

I remember seeing Bob Crupi in In-fisherman magazine years ago, when Lake Castaic was gaining national notoriety. This book closes the circle between those days and the present with a perspective that, though not completely an insider's, is very close to the action.